Yellow Arrow Journal is a biannual publication of creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art by writers and artists who identify as women.

About Yellow Arrow Journal

Kitalo, Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX, No. 2 issue (fall 2024), guest edited by Tramaine Suubi, is available as a paperback and a PDF from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback for friends and family at a discount, click here. You can also find kitalo through most online distributors.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/yaj-kitalo-release-memorializing-griefulness

The overarching concept of kitalo, griefulness, explores the intertwining of grief and gratitude. “Kitalo” is an empathetic Luganda term of solidarity offered when someone experiences a spectrum of loss. It directly translates to “this/that is tragic” but is far richer than that. The cover image (cover design by Alexa Laharty) is called Growing by Dark Rivers by Liz Jakimow. According to Liz, “There is often a lot of darkness in my photographs now. While some may find it depressing, it feels more authentic to who I am. Yet there are also often elements that draw attention to the light, symbolizing hope.” Thank you to all who submitted and shared to kitalo and who let us put their art on and within the issue. For more information on how to submit to the next (spring 2025) issue, visit our submissions page.

Support the journal by purchasing a bundle of the 2024 (Vol. IX: ELEVATE and kitalo) issues at a discounted price, for yourself, for your office, or as a gift. Bundles are also available for the 2022 (Vol. VII: UpSpring and PEREGRINE) and 2023 (Vol. VIII: KINDLING and EMBLAZON) issues. Learn more about our bundles at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-bundle.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support. For an editorial statement from our Editor-in-Chief, see below.

Meet the Guest Editors

Editorial statement

At Yellow Arrow Publishing, we pride ourselves on nontraditional publishing methods that align with our nontraditional publishing company. We seek to uplift underrepresented voices and to allow women-identifying writers to exist and be heard exactly as they are.

We believe that publishing is a vehicle for storytelling and that each storyteller should have the freedom to tell the truest version of their story. This means that we don’t focus on common style guides and norms and that we don’t change our authors’ voices into something they are not.

While we provide a basic copyedit of each journal issue, manuscript, and chapbook that we publish, we prioritize maintaining the unique voice and style of each of our authors. Instead of fixating on grammar perfection (though we will fix errant commas), we focus on the heart of each piece: we want the ideas, themes, and styles of our writers to shine.

We believe that every writer has a story to tell and that every story is worth telling.

We want every writer we publish to come out of the process feeling heard, valued, and needed.

We believe that your story matters. That you matter.

And we want you to be heard.

Kapua Iao, Editor-in-Chief

JOURNAL ISSUES: FROM JOURNEY (VOL. I) TO KITALO (VOL. IX)